Sometimes facial expressions are enough to tell the story, there's really no need for words at all. On seeing Richard Dunne's smile, for example, when he emerged from the dressing room on Saturday afternoon there wasn't much need to ask: "Well Richie, how do you feel?" Ecstasy and rapture mixed with a helping of disbelief is, loosely, how that smile translated into words, but sometimes words are not enough.

Then there was Roy Keane's half quizzical, half roguish grin when a Dutch reporter asked him what he thought about the state of the Lansdowne Road pitch. "It was lovely and green," answered the Irish captain. The Dutch reporter actually wanted to know when it had last been mowed but Keane, evidently, thought the FAI's gardening skills were just fine.

Back to the smiling Dunne. What did Mick say to you in the dressing room?

"Congratulations," he beamed again. Anything else? "Na, to be honest everyone's just knackered at the moment, it's been a hard week, lots of pressure, I think we're all just a bit drained at this stage so there's not much being said."

So, what did he make of those 90 minutes marking the 'Who's Who of International Strikers'? "Well, we thought they were going to try and pass the ball a lot more but they just kept knocking it into the box and I think we defended it quite well. We were happy defending that kind of high ball - we were just heading it away at the edge of the box so, for most of the time, there was no danger to the goal - we were quite happy with that.

"We thought with the extra man, after Gary was sent off, and the extra space on the pitch they'd play it more on the ground, knock it around a bit but they just went route one really so that helped us out. With the quality they have they were bound to create chances at some stage but I thought we did well to keep them quiet. We got probably one good chance in the whole game and put it away - they had a few but didn't take them."

The match itself, though, came only a distant second in the favoured topics of conversation in the tunnel - all the players seemed to want to talk about was the crowd, the noise ... that atmosphere.

"It was as good as I've ever known it," said Matt Holland. "The crowd was so loud it was unbelievable - the feeling and the emotion after the game was fantastic." "I can't tell you how much they lifted us today," said Kevin Kilbane. "They were massive. Before the game we could hear the singing and chanting from the dressing-room so we knew they were up for it.

"Coming to the ground, through the streets, we could see the flags, the scarves, everyone with so much emotion. I've never experienced anything like it.

"When you looked around you could see on the other lads' faces how much it was helping, spurring them on. They were all fighting and chasing every ball, hunting everything down - it just lifted me personally and I'm sure it lifted all the other lads too."

Happy for Jason McAteer? "Ooh, Jason's an absolute legend now. When we came in to the dressing room we looked at him and he was virtually in tears, he was so emotional out there. He's the hero today and he fully deserves it, I'm just so happy for him," said Kilbane.

"Roy too. He's unbelievable. If you just watch him around the pitch for 90 minutes he doesn't give anything up - massive, massive heart, unbelievable to be honest with you."

Steve Staunton, meanwhile, was having none of the 'we rode our luck' line. "It's about time we had a little bit of luck but I think, today, we created our own - we deserved to get something out of the game and in the end we won it. It was a well worked goal, as good a goal as you'll see anywhere in the world. After that if we had employed the tactics the Dutch employed we would have been slaughtered for it but that's what they had to resort to. We dug in deep, defended well, kept a clean sheet for a change, so I think we deserved exactly what we got."

Steve Finnan, the man who crossed for McAteer's goal, admitted that he wasn't quite ready to be thrown in to the fray when Gary Kelly was sent off. "I was caught unawares because I hadn't even warmed up. It was marvellous, though. I was so nervous watching the game it was just a relief to get off the bench."

When you crossed for the goal did you pick McAteer out with pinpoint accuracy? Big smile. "Of course I did, yeah. Na, I didn't look up - I just turned and crossed and...fortunately Jason was on the far post. It was brilliant to be involved in a goal that was so important."